Lesbian axe murder appeal hinges on hearsay

Happier times

Dennis Hoy, left, was bludgeoned to death with an axe while sleeping in the bed of his girlfriend, Nicola Puddicome, in 2006. Puddicome and her lesbian lover, Ashleigh Pechaluk, were both charged with first-degree murder; Pechaluk was acquitted but Puddicome was convicted.

There’s no doubt that
GO Transit special constable Dennis Hoy was clubbed to death with an axe
in a night that was rife with passion and betrayal and cruelty.
There’s still plenty
of debate on exactly what happened on the night of October 27, 2006 when
Hoy, 36, was bludgeoned at least a half dozen times in the bed of his
longtime girlfriend Nicola Puddicombe in her apartment on the Queensway.
The two-day Ontario Court of Appeal hearing is scheduled to conclude Thursday.
At the time of Hoy’s
death, Puddicombe was involved in a lesbian relationship with Ashleigh
Pechaluk, a younger co-worker at the Loblaws at Victoria Park and
Gerrard St. Puddicombe was also still entwined in a relationship with
Hoy that began 11 years earlier.
The women were tried
separately in 2009 for first-degree murder in Hoy’s death. Pechaluk was
acquitted, after her confession sh to police was ruled inadmissible
because she was not told of her right to legal counsel. That videotaped
statement — obtained after 20 hours of denials during interrogation —
was played in Puddicombe’s trial.
Months after her
former lover walked free, Puddicombe was found guilty and sentenced to
life in prison. In their separate trials, the former lovers each blamed
the other for the murder, but the Crown argued that the lovers plotted
Hoy’s murder so that they could live together and collect his life
insurance and pension.
Key to the appeal is
the testimony of Sarah Sousa, a Loblaws co-worker who told juries in
both trials that Pechaluk spoke of varying plans to kill Hoy, including
clubbing. “Ashleigh would be the one to physically hit him in the head
and Nikki would be the one to call the cops,” Sousa told Superior Court
in Puddicombe’s trial.
Puddicombe’s lawyer
David Harris argued Wednesday at Osgoode Hall that current procedure for
instructing juries on the weight of hearsay evidence in conspiracy
trials is simply too complicated. “This is really too much for a jury to
handle; lawyers and judges dancing madly on the head of a pin,” Harris
said. “They’re (jury members) not morons … but they’re not robots
either.”
The appeal is being heard by Justices David Doherty, Marc Rosenberg, Janet Simmons, Robert Armstrong and Michael Tulloch.